Financial factors and depression and anxiety: A symptom-specific approach in the general population

Financial adversity increases the risk of common mental disorders. However, few studieshave assessed how multiple financial factors are related to individual symptoms of anxietyand depression. We applied a network approach to examine associations between objectiveregister-based and self-reported financial indicators, and symptoms of anxiety and depressionacross 49,750 randomly sampled Norwegian adults. Almost all measured symptoms wereassociated with at least one financial hardship or protective variable. Depressive symptomswere more strongly linked to financial difficulties compared to anxiety symptoms.Hopelessness was a key symptom tying financial factors to mental health adversities and wasassociated with greater financial dissatisfaction, inability to afford to keep one’s home warm,and unemployment. Experiencing sudden fear was linked with inability to afford healthyfood. Our findings point to the importance of financial factors, including those linked to basiclife circumstances, for population mental health and unravel granular associations withsymptoms of anxiety and depression.